“The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.”
Source: The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey of Human Life and Destiny
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Famous Will Durant Quotes
“Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”
“There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war.”
“When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near.”
Source: The Complete Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage, Life of Greece, Caesar and Christ, Age of Faith, Renaissance, Age of Reason Begins, Age of Louis XIV, Age of Voltaire, Rousseau and Revolution, Age of Napoleon, Reformation
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
“Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.”
Source: Story of Philosophy
“Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.”
Source: The Reformation: The Story of Civilization
“As soon as liberty is complete it dies in anarchy.”
Source: Rousseau and Revolution: A History of Civilization in France, England, and Germany from 1756, and in the Remainder of Europe from 1715 to 1789
“Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.”
Source: Story of Philosophy
“Nature has never read the Declaration of Independence. It continues to make us unequal.”
“Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.”
“Moral codes adjust themselves to environmental conditions.”
“Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.”
“Inquiry is fatal to certainty.”
Source: The Age of Faith: The Story of Civilization
“There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.”
“Civilization is the order and freedom is promoting cultural activity.”
“Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law.”
Source: The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization
“We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street and Broadway.”
“Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.”
Source: Story of Philosophy
“In the last analysis civilization is based upon the food supply.”
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: The story of civilization
“Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization.”
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
“Wherever men do things, other men will arise who will explain to them how things should be done.”
Source: The story of civilization
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: The Lessons of History
“History offers some consolation by reminding us that sin has flourished in every age.”
Source: The Lessons of History
Source: Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization
Source: The Story of Civilization: The age of Napoleon; a history of European civilization from 1789 to 1815
“Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.”
Source: Story of Philosophy
“Contentment is rare among men as it is natural among animals”
Source: The Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ, a history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to A.D. 325